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Hilton charms Wellesley with vintage sound and big hair
-wellesley News
Tyler Hilton is charming.
In an interview dotted with analogies comparing pop music to bread makers, music tours to summer camp, Hilton a twenty-year-old singer/songwriter from Los Angeles discussed his music, his goals and even the history of his trademark hairstyle.
Hilton performed at Wellesley on Sunday as part of the Virgin College Mega Tour, which also featured Joe Firstman, Rooney and Michelle Branch. He characterized his music as "pop music. I've tried so hard to skirt around that, but that's what it is. The difference lies in where I come from, my influences." He cites old folk, blues, jazz and country as his musical interests and claims Elvis Presley is his biggest influence. Hilton explained, "I'm obsessed with back then."
Hilton's hairstyle is testament to his interest in Elvis, standing a good three inches above his head. In his single "When It Comes," Hilton croons 'I comb my hair like Elvis,' solidifying his image as The Elvis of 2004. On his hair maintenance, Hilton boasts 'blues men don't need gel,' whereby his gravity-defying hairstyle is a wonder of physics.
Hilton's style of music certainly reflects his Southern influences. His smoky-smooth voice contains the slightest Southern twang that complements both the mellow tone of most of his songs and the soulfulness of his occasional blues.
A native of Los Angeles, Hilton claims, "I think I was born in the wrong placeI like blues, folk old stuff." Nevertheless, Hilton has been successful in merging his love of the past with his search for a place in mainstream music of today.
His debut album, The Tracks Of . . . , will be in stores this summer, and a two-song sampler including "When It Comes" and "Rollin Home" is quickly making its way across the country as Hilton and the rest of the Virgin College Mega Tour make their way from coast to coast.
Of the other artists on the tour, Hilton said, "They're great to have a good time with. The tour is like a rolling summer camp."
The Virgin College Mega Tour has been hitting colleges across the nation, having begun in late March in Virginia and ending in late April in New York.
Before Hilton received his record deal, he had planned to attend Berklee School of Music in Boston. Opting instead to pursue music professionally, at least for the present, Hilton explained, "I really want to go to college, but I realize now that I wouldn't want to go to Berklee. I don't want to make music a have-to thing . . . as a song writer I'm reflecting on what I do all day. You can't write songs about writing songs."
Indeed, the topics of Hilton's songs range from love to blues to traveling, always with the same intense guitar accompaniment and thickly textured vocals that characterize Hilton?s highly unique, though as he reluctantly admitspop sound.
Sunday's performance highlighted the diversity of Hilton's sound and his love for the past with a set that included pop songs from his upcoming CD and a rousing blues piece whose chorus begged, "New York can wait."
Fans scattered around Severance Green quickly accumulated into a small crowd and even made requests. Hilton, perpetually a crowd-pleaser and naturally smooth with the small throng of Wellesley students, complied, even giving a "highlight," as he called it, of "The Letter Song," playing just the chorus for a fan who had missed the song when Hilton played it earlier in the set.
With Hilton's fan-base quickly growing as he crosses the U.S., he can rest assured he has acquired a loyal following at Wellesley College.
